Two people were killed in a shooting at the Moscow office of Russian retailer Wildberries on Wednesday, with the CEO blaming a failed takeover attempt by her ex-husband.
Wildberries reported that gunmen accompanying Vladislav Bakalchuk, the husband of CEO Tatyana Bakalchuk, illegally entered the company’s office building in central Moscow and opened fire.
Videos on social media showed a brawl breaking out at the office entrance, with shots being fired in the background. In one of the videos, a man was seen holding a gun.
The incident came weeks after Wildberries, Russia’s largest online retailer, completed a merger deal that Vladislav criticized and that strongman Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov vowed to stop.
“Today, a group led by Vladislav Bakalchuk, Sergei Anufriev and Vladimir Bakin attempted to seize the offices of Wildberries in Moscow,” said CEO Tatiana Bakalchuk, who is also Russia’s richest woman.
“To my great regret, a guard at our office was killed in the armed attack on Wildberries,” she said. A second guard later died of his wounds, Russian state media reported.
A total of seven people were injured, including two police officers, the Russian Investigative Committee said.
Russia’s Investigative Committee, which investigates serious crimes, said it has opened a criminal case.
An eyewitness, Nadezhda, told AFP she heard screams and shots in the building, a business centre that also houses offices of other companies.
“The wounded were taken out of the building and taken away by ambulance. Some of them were carried,” she said.
– ‘Brutal’ takeover –
Vladislav denied that he and his men were armed. On social media, he said he had come to the office to take part in negotiations and that the shooting had taken place “from inside the building.”
Wildberries disputed his story, saying his men were the “first to open fire” and that as a former employee he had no right to enter the building.
It was also said that illegal attempts had been made to enter two of her addresses at the same time, without details being given.
Tatiana Bakalchuk called her husband’s claims “absurd.”
“Nobody wanted to negotiate,” she said on Telegram.
AFP saw several police vehicles near the office in central Moscow. Ten people have been detained in connection with the incident, Russian state news agency RIA reported.
Bakalchuk founded Wildberries in 2004 with her then-husband, an IT technician, but announced in July that they had separated and were getting divorced.
Vladislav owns one percent of the company, while his wife Tatiana owns the remaining 99 percent.
The company completed a merger with Russian outdoor advertising giant Russ last month, a deal that has the Kremlin’s approval but which her husband Vladislav called a “huge mistake.”
In July, the leader of Russia’s Chechen Republic, Ramzan Kadyrov, condemned the deal as a “blatant and shameless” corporate robbery and vowed to put an end to it after meeting Vladislav in person.
farmer/farmer’s wife
